The Boys in The Boat

 

          The Boys in The Boat by Daniel James Brown is a book about the journey of nine boys on a rowing team in the time of the Great Depression who made it to the 1936 Olympic Games. The story mainly focuses on a boy from the rowing team named Joe Rantz who had a very tough life as a child. When he was just four his mother died of cancer and was forced to live with his aunt who he barely knew and then moved in with his brother Fred and his wife. Then his father Harry married a woman named Thula so Joe went to live with them, but then when their house burnt down they were forced to live in a camp. Then after Thula decided to kick Joe out of their house and he was sent to live in a schoolhouse when he was nine. The rest of his childhood was still pretty hard for Joe and then when he was fifteen Harry and Thula left him to live on his own in their house. Then Joe found out about a rowing team. He first started along with many other boys to make it to the freshman boat and then the journey to Berlin in 1936 begun. Joe made the freshman boat and then he made his way up as he got better and prepared to go to go to Berlin.
          This book reminds me of the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand because they are both about sports and overcoming obstacles. They are also similar because they are written similarly and both Joe Rantz and Louis Zamperini had difficult experiences as a child. Also, both Louis and Joe were born around the same time and both went to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes an inspiring sports story because it is about how people can start from nothing and get all the way to something big like the Olympics. I think it also would be interesting for readers who like a non-fiction read that still tells a good story.